A/76/162 the event, allowed participants of the regional forum to continue discussions around the event in the social media space, strategize among each other and use their participation in the regional forum as an advocacy tool. One example is the Oromo Legacy Leadership and Advocacy Association, which live-streamed a panel discussion of the regional forum, with the participation of its director, on the Facebook page of the organization. The live stream has been viewed more than 20,000 times. In Nigeria, members of the Igbo community in one locality even set up a venue outdoors where the whole community could watch the live-streaming of the event. C. Country missions 13. No country missions were undertaken by the Special Rapporteur in the period in 2020 and 2021 covered by the present report because of worldwide travel restrictions linked to the COVID-19 pandemic. D. Forum on Minority Issues 14. Information on the thirteenth session of the Forum on Minority Issues, held online on 19 and 20 November 2020 on the theme “Hate speech, social media and minorities”, can be found in the annual report of the Special Rapporteur to the Human Rights Council for 2021 (see A/HRC/46/57, paras. 16–19). The Special Rapporteur wishes to highlight the significant levels of interest and participation in 2020, particularly on a regional basis: some 1,000 participants were registered, of whom around 400 were registered for the Forum on Minority Issues and almost 600 for the two regional forums held in April and June 2021. The number of participants at the Forum in Geneva, however, was greatly reduced compared to previous years because of uncertainty over the holding of the Forum in the light of the pandemic and the absence for a significant period of time of an OHCHR consultant to organize the Forum. The fourteenth session of the Forum will focus on the prevention of conflict and the protection of the human rights of minorities and should be held in Geneva in December 2021. E. Communications 15. In 2020, a total of 78 communications were sent to Governments and other stakeholders. All of them were sent jointly with other special procedures mandate holders, a very significant increase from the previous year. Of those, 16 were urgent appeals, 53 were letters of allegation and 9 were letters commenting on and raising concerns over specific legislation, policies and practices. 16. With regard to the geographical distribution, 43 of the communications were for the Asia-Pacific region, 16 for Europe and Central Asia, 9 for the Middle East and North Africa, 4 for sub-Saharan Africa and 5 for Latin America and the Caribbean. One communication was sent to a private company. 17. The communications addressed human rights violations, such as per secution of and violence against persons belonging to minorities, as well as minority human rights defenders, arbitrary detention and torture, restrictions and limitations on religious freedoms, excessive use of force by law enforcement, forced evictions, discrimination in the area of education and the impact of development projects and of business activities on the human rights of minorities. 2 __________________ 2 21-09902 For details of all communications sent and information received under the mandate, see https://spcommreports.ohchr.org/Tmsearch/TMDocuments . 5/22